Friendly Plastic supplies

Somebody posted a question on my blog 'Guest Book', asking where I get my Friendly Plastic from.

There are 3 reliable places in the UK who carry a wide range of colours and enough stock not to disappoint:

Altered Element - who also sell all manner of other fabulous goodies - http://www.alteredelement.co.uk/epages/es108190.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/es108190_es119921283844/Categories/Friendly_Plastic

Liz Welch - who also does FP classes - http://www.rarebird.ltd.uk/FPshop.html

and

The Frame Workshop - http://www.theframeworkshop.co.uk/friendly-plastic

and I have never had a 'snapper' or faulty stick from any of them! Snappers are no good to work with. Always check your FP sticks before using them by bending them so that the ends touch - if they do this without snapping they are fine to use. If they snap, you may as well just put them in the bin, as they won't behave themselves when you're trying to work with them!

The 'snappers' are just born that way - it's not an age thing. Apparently the product was originally developed for a non-craft purpose and was not intended to be melted and re-melted, and if the formula is just a tiny bit different the sticks are crumblier and snap rather than being very flexible.